


Coming Home to Roost

by azurefishnets



Category: Over the Garden Wall (Cartoon)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-22
Updated: 2018-10-22
Packaged: 2019-08-06 03:01:02
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 338
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16380158
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/azurefishnets/pseuds/azurefishnets
Summary: A human turning into a bird is impossible. Beatrice knows this first hand.





	Coming Home to Roost

**Author's Note:**

  * For [ViolentFlowers](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ViolentFlowers/gifts).



The worst part about it at first was the itching, itching to the point of pain. It began with a feeling of goosebumps, a shiver running down every limb. Each feather jabbing through, feeling the barbs dry and unfold as she simultaneously shrank, internal structures coiling and restructuring to match her new body. She opened her mouth to scream, to cry, to plead, to beg, but all that escaped was a strangled choke. Her vocal chords struggled for a moment with the morphogenetic fields writhing within her, but prevailed. A talking bird she would be, but blue birds are not meant to work like parrots. The damage caused cost her in pain.

She had to just lay and breathe for a few hours, but the demands of hunger and thirst drew her up. Water wasn’t so hard. It felt strange going down her throat, but doable. It was food that presented the bigger problem. She could feel the worms beneath the dirt, wriggling. She could feel the pangs of hunger, but still she was afraid. Eating a worm was admitting she was no longer human. Eating a worm was admitting her guilt. She would rather eat rocks than admit either of those things. Fortunately/unfortunately for her, eating rocks was exactly what she had to learn to do in order to digest the worm.

Humility came almost last of all. Seeing her family, seeing them miserably attempting to do the same things she had had to learn to do, nearly broke her. Hearing her smallest sister wail through a bird's beak drove her as far the opposite way as she could manage. 

Determination drove her to fly for the first time. It would have been exhilarating, if she could have forgotten what she’d done to bring her to this place. She soared over forests and lakes, worriedly considering where in the world she could even consider coming to roost, but it was the calm grassland, a beautiful pasture with a tidy cottage, that enticed her down at last.

**Author's Note:**

> ViolentFlowers, I hope this is kind of what you wanted! Is it a treat? Is it a trick? I guess it's up to you to decide...


End file.
